The present invention relates to a computer-implemented method for providing business conduct training.
Businesses operating in the United States are subject to various laws governing the conduct of supervisors and employees and may be held liable for the misconduct of these individuals. Such areas of potential liability may include, for example, harassment, discrimination, human relations, ethics, insider trading, handling of confidential information, environmental compliance, and safety. Businesses may avoid or lessen their liability for the misconduct of employees by providing training in such areas of business conduct.
For example, in rulings over the past few years, the United States Supreme Court has established new guidelines for employers who want to limit or even avoid liability in the area of discrimination and harassment. In a recent opinion, issued in 1999, the Court stated that a demonstrated commitment against harassment and discrimination is the best protection against a punitive damage award in discrimination cases and an awareness training program must be part of an employer's commitment.
Traditionally, employers have provided such awareness training through handbooks, seminars and videotapes. However, such traditional training methods have a number of shortcomings. For example, paper-based training materials and videotapes are costly to change because changes usually require a reprint or reproduction. Because of continuous changes in the law, these “static” training materials quickly become out of date. Furthermore, such traditional training materials are usually costly to customize to a particular company's needs. Thus, they often lack effectiveness because they are “generic” and fail to incorporate the company's name, the trainee's name, or the company's policies and procedures. Furthermore, companies are reluctant to customize such traditional training aids because they will quickly become out of date with changes in the law or the company's internal policies and procedures.
The trainee often loses interest and fails to absorb subject matter in videotapes and handbooks because they are not interactive. Such passive training methods also often do not provide an opportunity for the trainee to reinforce knowledge learned through the training course by applying it to issues raised in practical scenarios. Though live training seminars may overcome these disadvantages, they are expensive and time consuming, particularly if the company desires to annually update the training as is often recommended by legal specialists.
Another disadvantage of traditional training methods is that they fail to provide an up to date and convenient resource that the trainee can access after training. Videotapes and seminars are typically not accessible to trainees after the program is completed. Thus, the trainee cannot later consult such training materials to resolve actual problems faced in the workplace or to refresh the his or her knowledge. While paper-based training materials, such as employee handbooks, may be available to the trainee after the training, such materials are often not a useful resource because they are frequently disposed of, misplaced, or out of date.
Traditional training methods also place an administrative burden on the employer by requiring it to also establish and administer a system of recording the employee's participation in the training and comprehension of the training materials presented. To avoid liability for a trainee's misconduct, it is important for the employer to establish a record to prove that the trainee was adequately trained and understood the material.
Previous computer-implemented training methods have failed to effectively overcome these and other shortcomings of traditional training methods. For example, Makipaa U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,213, provides a method of business conduct guidelines education utilizing a computer program. However, the format of this and other similar programs mimics that of traditional training methods. For example, such programs do not provide an effective and up to date resource that can be utilized by the trainee after completion of the course to review materials covered in the course and to handle issues later arising in the workplace. In addition, such programs are generally “one size fits all” products that lack customization features to make the training materials more meaningful and memorable. Prior methods do not contemplate a means for effectively customizing the product by integrating such things as the employee's name, the employer's name, and the employer's policies and procedures within training materials and scenarios to increase the effectiveness and applicability of the training materials. Moreover, such programs lack interactive features to make the training materials interesting and memorable.
The innovative method for providing business conduct training disclosed herein overcomes these and other disadvantages of prior training methods.